Composing Colors
by silentmusic16
Summary: A collection of stories based on the ChikaRiko Week 2017 prompts (late though I may be). Rating may or may not change later. Other pairings may also make an appearance.
1. Day One: Distance (Sunset)

**I really wanted to join in on ChikaRiko week this year, but as it tends to, real life got in the way of writing. Still, I loved the prompts/themes and I intend to complete the week's worth of writing no matter how late I might be.**

 **Enjoy!**

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 _Day One: Distance / Sunset_

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 _Distance_ was a word Riko Sakurauchi knew all too well. There was a distance between the keys of the piano and her fingers - relatively small, but there, and always an opportunity for a mistake. There also loomed a distance between Tokyo and Uchiura: physical, definite, and heartbreaking. Of course, there was now the melancholic gap of space between her and Chika, that crushing and invisible distance she felt existed between the two girls.

She hadn't seen Chika in two weeks (a distance in time) and despite her best attempts Riko worried with each passing day whether or not her move had been the right one. Outside of her small Tokyo student apartment she spied citizens finding their way home while the late afternoon sun tinted the world in heavy, sad, golden hues. Masses of people moved from school to work, from work to home, or from home to the nightlife of Tokyo, whose bartenders, food stand-owners, and denizens were just beginning to set up the night's festivities. Riko, twisting a strand of wine-red hair round a finger unconsciously, observed all of this with a sigh. She missed the quiet of Uchiura and its slow sea-side lifestyle. Her initial move during her second year of high school had been difficult; the difference between Tokyo and Uchiura was night and day. Still, she learned to love and appreciate her new home and the friends it gave her. She was surprised to find that only two years passed since then; she felt like she'd lived in Uchiura her whole life. Now that she once again lived in Tokyo, adjusting to the city proved to be near torture.

"I miss Chika." She whispered into the echoing expanse of her empty apartment. She walked back from the window she'd looked out of and stood before the keyboard in the corner of the room. _This_ was why she was back in Tokyo, and so far away from her Chika

 _"Congratulations!" The orange-haired girl yelled as she wrapped her arms around Riko in a tight hug. They sat beside one another on Riko's soft pink bed and the remains of an official-looking manila envelope lay at their feet. The summer night swelled around them in a bubble of warm silence that made RIko feel like her and her girlfriend were the only people in the world._

 _"Thank you but...oh it's, uh, it's nothing Chika." Riko tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled up at the girl beside her. Her eyes were met with a concerned pair that seemed almost too somber to belong to Chika Takami of all people._

 _"What do you mean, 'it's nothing'? This is great! A full ride to such a well-regarded music college is amazing!"_

 _Riko opened her mouth to respond, but said nothing. She reconsidered her words as her eyes traveled around the room in her home there in Uchiura. "I'm not going to accept it, Chika. I'm going to - "_

 _"What?!" Chika sprung back in place as if to get a better look at the girl, while searching Riko intently for any sign of a joke or a lie. "Why?" she asked, her voice lower now, because she found no little clue or sign of deception._

 _"Going back to Tokyo and leaving you here is...is...it feels wrong. It's impossible." The redhead placed a hand on Chika's knee for support as she leaned forward to rest her head on the girl's chest. They were both quiet for a long moment until Chika spoke up. She ran a hand through Riko's hair slowly._

 _"Do you remember our first year as idols? How you had to leave at such an important time to enter that competition?"_

 _"Of course." For a moment Riko felt herself transported to that wonderful morning when Chika proved just how selfless she was, and just how much she cared not only about her own dream but about Riko's as well. It was the first time Riko ever admitted her love to the girl in front of her._

 _"I meant what I said back then. You should follow your dream! You should prove to yourself - to everyone! - just how far you can go."_

 _The night breeze stung Riko's cheeks slightly where tears were leaving trails in their wake. "I'll be very far." She admitted, "And it'll be intense. I don't know when I'll even have time to visit or anything."_

 _"That's alright!" Chika smiled so brilliantly even through her own fresh tears. She pulled Riko in for another hug and rubbed circles in the girl's back. "We'll make it somehow. This is too important for you to just give up, Riko!"_

 _Over Chika's shoulder Riko stared, unsure, at the keyboard against the back wall of her room. If she listened closely she could hear the nearby ocean rushing up against the shore not too far away._

A month passed since she accepted the grant, and two weeks since she moved back to Tokyo. Just as she was afraid of, she hadn't seen Chika at all in that time. The distance and loneliness were getting to Riko like a bad flue; the pain seemed to emanate throughout her body from her very core. Mindlessly wandering away from the piano in the corner of her room Riko moved back towards the window. There was an itch in the back of her mind she couldn't figure out and, without thinking, Riko stuck her slender arm out of the window and into the daylight.

She waited a few moments before pulling her arm back through the window with a surprised blush. This wasn't Uchiura. Chika wasn't mere feet away, standing on her own balcony and extending her arm over the railing for just the slightest brush of Riko's fingers. She wasn't launching herself over the space in between their homes to land, smiling and bright-eyed, into Riko's waiting arms.

No, Chika was back in Uchiura, an impossible distance away.

Sitting on her bed with her legs pulled up to her chest and her head resting on her knees, Riko watched the late afternoon pass into twilight. There were compositions to write and songs to practice, but the girl couldn't muster the energy to begin her classwork at all. A strange panic buzzed in her stomach; she felt restless but exhausted, fretful but drained. This wasn't right at all. Being stuck in Tokyo, being so far away from Chika...it wasn't right. A moment passed in an eternity, and then she was bounding up from her bed, throwing on a coat, grabbing her phone and purse, and was nearly out the door without a thought or a breath. She paused when her hand touched the doorknob like she was shocked with static electricity.

 _"I've got to go see Chika._ " She thought, though she did not turn the knob. _"I have to get to Uchiura. To...to..."_

The girl turned then and looked once more out of that single window in her small apartment.

Sunset blazed scarlet and rust in the sky like the heavens themselves were on fire. It was a beautiful view, a breathtaking one, and for yet another moment Riko found herself transported back to Uchiura in all but body - she was on the beach during the sunset, on her first day in the small town, meeting Chika Takami for the first time.

After taking a deep breath a smile grew on her face. She stepped back from the door and returned her things to their proper place. This was crazy. Chika wanted her to achieve her dream. What was running back to Uchiura going to accomplish?

An idea popped into her head then. There _was_ one composition she wanted to work on. It sat in the built-in music stand of her piano, and without missing a beat Riko sat down in front of it.

The difference between Tokyo and Uchiura was night and day. She had accepted that a long time before. But what rested between there, between day and night? What existed beautifully in their midst? Twilight. The sunset. Red and orange. Her and Chika.

Riko pulled out her phone and dialed the girl. Barely a single ring passed before Chika picked up.

"Riko? How are you? What's up?" Came the breathless voice from the other side.

"I wrote you a song." she smiled, "It's called _Higure._ Sunset _"_

"You wrote a song for me? Riko, that's amazing! I-" but the girl placed the phone down onto the keyboard softly. She missed Chika's last words, though she had a feeling she knew what they were. The distance between her and Chika didn't seem so bad when it was just the distance between her fingers and the keys.

Set to the background of a burning sunset - one she was sure Chika could see even far away in Uchiura - Riko took a deep breath and began to play.

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 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Reviews, criticisms, and responses are all welcome!**


	2. Day Two: Rainy Day (Cards)

**The various prompts in this won't always be related to one another, though this story and the first chapter share a canon. I'll mention which other ones do as the rest of this series is posted.**

 **Enjoy!**

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 _Day Two: Rainy Day / Cards_

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From the view at the piano atop a slightly raised platform in the back of the restaurant, Riko felt more nervous to perform than she ever had. Idol concerts, piano recitals, events with far bigger crowds than the 60 or so people in the high class eatery...none of these affected her like this event did. _"Maybe it's the intimacy of a small venue"_ , she wondered for a moment.

"10 minutes, Miss Sakurauchi" said the maitre d', standing behind the stage as if he also felt as nervous as Riko did. He had no real reason to, but perhaps it was simply because he didn't trust the former idol _not_ to mess up.

"Sure." she nodded, rising off of the piano bench as quickly as she could. She walked back to the small closet-like room in the rear of the restaurant and closed the door behind her quietly, sighing as she sunk down into the lone, hard wooden chair sitting in the center of the room. Her skin prickled as she realized how thin the material of her simple coral-colored dress was, even with her white cardigan wrapped around her shoulders. It was freezing, though this should be expected in the midst of the Fall, and certainly during the rainiest week Riko thought she'd ever experienced.

To get her mind off of the cold, and off her itchy nerves, Riko reached into her purse and pulled out a neatly tied bundle of cards from her purse. She untied the red silk ribbon wrapped around the bundle and looked at each card once again after tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Back home in Uchiura, all of her friends had sent cards wishing her good luck, or telling her they missed her, or congratulating her on the talent agent she managed to land. Each card was like a little piece of its creator's personality in such a genuine way that it made Riko's heart clench in some mixture of longing and joy. Mari's card was obvious from its ostentatious golden English writing strewn about on the cover; with her limited knowledge of the language Riko could _just_ make out the word "shiny!" about 10 times, though she smiled anyway. Ruby's, Dia's, and Hanamaru's cards were also very obvious from the covers alone. Ruby's might as well have been made of the very _concept_ of 'cuteness', what with all of the hearts and smiley faces and adorable, bubbly hiragana. On the other hand, Dia's was diametrically opposed to her sister's. Everything about it was neat, clean, and simple, though nonetheless just as heartfelt. Riko knew Hanamaru's immediately upon seeing that it was set on tan, tea-bag-colored paper that imitated old parchment, and written in painstaking calligraphy. Riko placed those cards down safely and picked up the rest of the pile.

Yoshiko's card was more like _Yohane's_ card, if the deep black of the thing - and the the pentagrams covering it- meant anything. Kanan's and You's were similar in color and at first she had a problem determining whose was whose, until she spotted a tell-tale "yousoro!" on the inside one of them.

As she sorted through the cards Riko's mood lifted considerably. Those wonderful well-wishes from her dearest friends meant so much to her that she normally left the cards on a small shelf visible from just about every inch of the small student apartment she lived in. They made her so happy that she could actually stand the pain of the fact that Chika hadn't sent her one.

At first Riko thought the missing card was a mishap from the post office, and later that her girlfriend might simply have sent her card late - after all, she was not the kind of person to do things on time, if the way she wrote song lyrics was any indication. It wasn't until a week and a half followed the arrival of the other cards without Chika's appearing that she allowed herself to grow more and more heartbroken. Coincidentally, this happened at the same time as lead gray clouds covered Tokyo in a downpour of heavy raindrops that seemed to fall without end, and had lasted a week already.

The door to the small guest room opened before she knew it, and the same man from earlier poked his head in. "It's time, Miss Sakurauchi." he announced. She sent a small smile and nod his way before quickly tying up the bundle of cards again. She placed them in her purse, smoothed out a few wrinkles in her dress, and took a deep breath before heading out to the dining room.

In the minutes she'd been gone, the dining room went from "lunch" to "dinner" seemingly out of nowhere. The once bright lights dimmed considerably and the hum of the diners' conversations lowered, taking on a far more intimate cadence. The restaurant she'd been given a chance at was a famous Western-styled eatery deep in downtown Tokyo, a place where some of the city's wealthiest dined nightly. The wealthiest _and_ the most influential. Riko absolutely didn't want to make a fool out of herself in front of people, and certainly not those who might be able to help further her musical career.

She stood in front of the piano as the maitre d' introduced her to the crowd, whose collective eye was turned on the slender girl standing in front of them. She bowed once, flashed the crowd a confident smile that in _no way_ reflected her feelings, and took her seat on the bench.

It was just as her fingers played the very first notes of the very first song that the restaurant door banged open, loud as a gunshot. The room, already quiet while waiting for Riko to begin, fell down a layer into more of a charged silence that weighed upon the whole room. 62 pairs of eyes - including Riko's - turned towards the door at once to find the source of the disturbance.

Standing in the doorway, sopping wet and soaking every inch of the floor below her, was the bent over form of a heavily-breathing orange-haired girl with a single ribboned braid. Riko stifled a gasp but couldn't stop her fingers from slamming down into a discordant set of notes that, for a moment, caused the mass of eyes to turn to her accusingly before returning to Chika Takami.

Two or three members of the staff came rushing over after the initial shock of Chika's entrance and they stood over the girl with expressions ranging from anger to irritated confusion. Riko longed to hear what they were saying to the girl, but she was too far away to make out anything besides aggressive voices. She could see Chika looking over a staff member's shoulder (ignoring the man entirely) right at her. Chika mouthed some silent words, but Riko couldn't make those out either.

"Play, Miss Sakurauchi." the maitre d' whispered to her loudly, and she nearly jumped out of her skin; all of her attention was so focused on Chika that she hadn't even noticed the man standing beside her. "Get their attention away from this _problem_." he urged.

Riko hesitated. If she ignored Chika she'd feel terrible - not to mention that she wanted to defend the girl from being referred to as a 'problem'. On the other hand, refusing to do what the maitre d' ordered might mark an early end to a contract that had hardly begun. Before she could even make her decision, however, one of the staff members who'd spoken to Chika walked up to the stage.

"The girl is here for Miss Sakurauchi." he told the maitre d', as his eyes flicked disapprovingly to Riko for a moment. Both men turned towards Riko, who blushed in embarrassment.

"D-don't get the wrong idea," she tried to explain. "I hadn't invited her like this, but yes, she's my friend."

"That doesn't excuse her behavior." the maitre d' said.

"I know, I know, but...could she wait for me in that guest room? Please?" Riko pleaded.

The man stared at her for a few seconds, but begrudgingly agreed. " _Please_ don't let this happen again, Miss Sakurauchi."

"Of course not." she bowed her head. "Thank you."

The four hours of that very first dinner service she was contracted to play might have been the longest four hours of Riko's life. Six to ten passed more like twelve to twelve, and even during her one and only intermission she couldn't find the time to sneak away to the guest room. _"I wonder if they even gave Chika a towel,"_ she thought to herself. Instead of seeing Chika, the pianist spent her break speaking to the owner of the restaurant.

 _"Very impressive playing, Miss..."_

 _"Sakurauchi_. _" Riko answered the restaurant's owner. "But thank you very much, sir. I appreciate the compliment."_

 _He was a tall, slender man wearing clothing that must've cost twice what Riko's entire closet cost, though the smile on his face seemed genuine enough as he praised Riko's piano playing. He walked over as she had tried to unassumingly walk away from the stage during her single break of the night, and she felt frozen to her spot on the floor._

 _"I'm only speaking the truth." he laughed. "One of your professors, Mr. Murakami - he's a good friend of mine. I'm glad I took his recommendation and gave you a chance here."_

 _"Thank you again for the kind words, and for the opportunity." Riko smiled, though inside she was practically_ itching _to get to that guest room. Her hands almost betrayed her as they began clenching at her side, and she forced herself to take a breath and use that nervous energy to smooth out nonexistent wrinkles in her dress. Minutes speaking became half an hour, and while she was glad to have left such a good impression on the owner of the place, the fact that she couldn't see Chika burned deeply._

It was only after her whole set was done, after the final customer of the night walked out satisfied with both music and food, that Riko was able to finally leave the stage to see Chika. She just about leaped off the bench and ran to the guest room, but she froze outside the door when she reached it. She was tired from her set that night, slightly sweaty as well thanks to the heat that came from the overhead light hanging above the piano, and this wasn't even counting her frayed nerves, sparkling with worry and impatience throughout the night. A million ways to start a conversation passed through her head. Should see be excited to see Chika? Should she confront the girl right off the bat about the lack of a card? Should she just cry from relief? After all, this was the first time in a month and a half that she'd even seen Chika. They hadn't met face to face since Riko's move to Tokyo.

Riko bit her lip and opened the door, and in that same moment Chika bowed low, holding out something thin and rectangular in her hands towards the pianist.

"A...card?" Riko asked.

"Take it please, RIko." Chika had still to rise from her bow.

"Alright."

She pulled the card out of Chika's hand gingerly and opened it; Chika's hands fell to her side. Glancing from the card to Chika and back just once, Riko opened it to find nothing more than a heart. There were no words, no notes, no other pictures - nothing, nothing except for the heart on the page.

"Chika?"

The girl finally lifted herself from the bow, wearing a sheepish grin that caused Riko's own heart to skip a beat or two. "I thought of way too many things to write to you." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I must've gone through a hundred cards!" she laughed. "But, after everything, I think this sums it up pretty nicely. Sorry it took so long to get here."

Tears sprung to Riko's eyes and she threw herself at Chika, wrapping her arms around the girl as tightly as she could. "Oh, Chika! That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard."

Chika returned the embrace, holding Riko just as tightly, before her eyes widened and she pushed Riko away quickly.

"Huh?" Riko asked, her heart filled with worry.

"I'm still wet from the rain. I don't want to get you soaked too." Chika shrugged with an apologetic smile.

Riko bit her lip. Now that she noticed it, she could feel a large wet spot on the front of her dress ( _"I guess they never gave her a towel" she thought)_ , but found that she just didn't care about being wet. "That doesn't matter." she smiled, and once more wrapped her arms around Chika and kissed the girl quickly on the lips. They stood silently, holding onto one another all alone in the guest room.

"Miss Sakurauchi, we're closing up for the night." came the voice of the maitre d' following a series of knocks. Chika was at the door before Riko even had a chance to answer. She opened it to find the man standing patiently in his impeccably neat uniform.

"I'm really sorry about earlier." she apologized before the man could even say a word. "Please don't hold this against Riko. She had no idea I was even coming."

"Is this true?" he looked above Chika to the pianist.

"Honestly, I was just as surprised as all of you."

A beat passed as he pondered his answer. "I'll make sure the owner doesn't even know about this incident. He wasn't in the room at the time. Just don't let it happen again, alright?" he answered, before walking away towards the kitchen to round up the cleaning crew.

Chika turned to Riko and beamed.

What a nice apartment this is!" Chika said when Riko opened the door to her home. They had just arrived and the rain was still drip, drip, dripping without end.

"You haven't even been inside yet. Come on in, you have to get out of those clothes before you catch a cold." Riko ordered.

Chika walked in first, slowly, and RIko followed after. She turned on the lights in her apartment as she walked through it, while the orange-haired girl stood dripping on the welcome mat in the entrance.

"Wait right there, I'll get you a towel." Riko disappeared into the bathroom as she spoke, returning a few moments later with a fresh towel, soft and red.

"Thanks." Chika started to dry her hair and her exposed arms when Riko gave her a sympathetic smile. "Why don't you go and borrow some clothes? Dry up and change and while you do that I'll make us some tea."

"I can stay over?"

"Is that even a question?" Riko responded with playful sarcasm.

While Chika was getting dressed in the pianist's room, Riko was returning the cards her friends had sent her to the small wooden shelf above her window. She placed each one down carefully, and could hardly contain her excitement as she put Chika's where it should have been all along.

Minutes later Chika walked out wearing a large pair of gray sweatpants that Riko kept to lounge in, as well as a very large white t-shirt kept around for the same reason. The t-shirt was filled with holes. Despite trying to keep her intentions pure, Riko found herself eyeing the girl intently, hoping to see if she was wearing a bra under that thin t-shirt; the holes seemed to tease a truth without giving it away. A lucky glance through one of the arms of the shirt gave the answer Riko could only blush at. Steam rose from the kettle, but in a moment all of that was forgotten.

Without saying anything Chika hugged Riko from behind and buried her face in the girl's smooth back. "I really missed you, Riko."

Riko turned around, managing to stay in the embrace, and returned the hug. She kissed the girl softly on the forehead.

"I missed you too."

Outside, the autumn rain continued to fall without end. The incessant dripping music of the rain drops insulated the intimate apartment from the rest of the world.

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 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Reviews, criticisms, and responses are all welcome!**


	3. Day Three: Red Thread of Fate (Firsts)

**This is definitely a bit late, but that can be blamed on a busy Thanksgiving and an even busier work week leading up to it. In any case, this prompt is canon to the past two. The next one will not be, and there's a possibility that future ones won't be either.**

 **Enjoy~**

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 _Day Three: The Red Thread of Fate / First(s)_

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It was still raining when Chika woke up the next morning. The soft pitter-patter on the window told her as much, and in her half-sleeping state she rolled over to watch heavy raindrops land against the clear pane. Behind her, farther into the apartment, she could make out the harsher sound of shower spray slapping against stall doors. Riko must've been bathing, she realized, and a glance to the empty side of the bed confirmed the same.

Chika closed her eyes again and felt an uncontrollable grin capture her face. She felt invincible. She felt loved; her heart full of care and compassion, a radio and antenna beaming signals of adoration in and out to Riko's ready receiver.

She felt sore, too. Drained, the way her body felt after a particularly good concert, when her muscles ached and her skin was sweaty and her lungs searched for air. Empty, but ready and waiting to be filled again with love and the like. She felt warm too, after having been out in the freezing rain she braved in order to deliver a card to her dearest Riko. The girls went back to Riko's after that. It was the first time they'd seen one another since the pianist moved back to Tokyo for school. The night before had been her - _their_ first time experiencing love in that physical, intimate way their bodies craved long before their hearts were ready.

It was the first time they'd seen each other like that: natural, vulnerable, enticed.

Chika opened her eyes again. She wasn't going back to sleep after remembering the intimacy of the night before. She turned instead to the left to look onto where Riko had finally fallen asleep. There remained an imprint of the pianist in the loose sheets, and there, on her pillow, a long, thin strand of Bordeaux hair contrasted against the bright white bedding. Chika gingerly picked up the hair and examined it closely. She smiled a little wider, as if that was possible, and recalled another first when Riko had left her the same gift.

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It happened to be their first kiss, of course. On the school rooftop Chika and Riko danced underneath the afternoon sun, yellow and bright and fresh as it reflected and refracted off of the school building, off of the cars in the lot, off of the water of the bay, storm blue and glass. Chika leaned in, then, or perhaps RIko did - she couldn't remember after the intensity of the afternoon and the verdant green of the trees and the blood flush coloring Riko's cheeks. Certainly not over the way the pianist's exercise clothing clung to her lithe body.

Still, they'd kissed, even with the threat of any or all of the rest of Aqours discovering them while they headed to practice. They kissed - soft lips to soft lips, warm body pressed to warm body - and a giggle bubbled up from Chika's throat through her teeth when finally they separated.

"I've been waiting to do that forever." Chika giggled again.

"It was...nice." Riko looked away shyly smiling. "Really nice."

It was hard to look at her, Chika thought. Hard to control herself from wanting to do it again and again and again. The group leader looked down at her own body instead, as if taking measure to see whether she was as physically different as she felt mentally and emotionally following the kiss. No, there didn't seem to be anything out of place, though her heart felt full to bursting with joy and some newly awakened part of her uncomfortably warm and wanting.

It was then that she noticed on her shoulder a single red strand of hair, fluttering slightly in the breeze but somehow not flying off. She picked it up and played with it absentmindedly, tying it around her little finger in a tight wrap. She was waiting for Riko to speak, but the look on the other girl's face - expectant, hopeful, yearning - told her that Riko was waiting for the same.

She reached out to the other girl and grasped her hands at waist level between them.

"It's like the red thread of fate, right? That old tale?" she prompted. Riko seemed confused for a moment; she hadn't expected that out of Chika's mouth, it appeared.

"Huh?"

"Your hair, see?" Chika let go of the girl's hand and held her little finger up to Riko's face. "You know, that old tale about being tied to your lover through destiny, no matter where you might be? Well, look - your hair, it's red like that."

"L-lovers?" Riko's eyes went wide and if she could blush any harder Chika might have tried to see if the girl was having a heart attack. She reached down and wound her pinky around Riko's.

"I - " Chika began.

But the door to the roof slammed open then, and a procession of idols filed out onto the practice floor chatting among themselves. Everyone spread out and began their stretching practices. Everyone but Mari, who laser-sighted the "secret" couple out on the far end of the roof.

"Isn't it a too little hot out here to be standing so close?" Mari teased, laughing a laugh she could hardly contain.

Riko jumped back and stuttered something unintelligible. Chika merely giggled again, throwing her head back and reveling in everything.

* * *

Riko walked in then, fresh and flushed from the shower. She was dressed already, wearing a thin pink sweater over a white button down and black pants, though the clock could hardly have read more than nine in the morning.

"Morning!" Chika greeted. Her voice was somewhat hoarse. Was it from hours of disuse while she slept, or the kind of sounds that had escaped her throat in those hours _before_ sleep?

"Good morning, Chika." Riko smiled warmly. Still, Chika thought a light in her eyes gave off a nervous glint, as if she had more to say but couldn't get anything else out at all. As if she had questions - what did the night before mean? Where were they going from here? Why had everything been so warm, so nerve-wracking, but so desirable all at once? Hundreds of questions danced around Riko's silent, worried smile, yet she didn't voice a single one.

"Why're you up so early?" Chika asked instead.

"For the same thing that _you're_ currently missing." Riko pointed to the girl severely, but smiled again, and in a moment added. "I have class this morning. One-on-one with that famous teacher I told you about."

"And here I thought you might be too sore - " RIko went red, so Chika corrected herself. "I thought you might be too tired after last night; I know I feel exhausted. In a good way." she grinned a bit at the end.

"I, uh...well, it's not like I'm _not_ sor- _tired_." she admitted, forcing the words out of her mouth. "B-but I certainly couldn't email my professor and tell them I'm missing class this morning because last night I lost my - "

"I get it, I get it." Chika laughed. She sat up in bed, keeping the blankets wrapped around her waist but letting them fall off her uncovered chest. Riko coughed, her face glowing as red as her hair. "Will you be back late?"

"N-no, no. I'll probably be back some time after lunch."

"Great! Maybe you can take me around Tokyo tonight, before I have to head back."

"We'll see," Riko leaned in and kissed CHika lightly. "See you later."

Chika, who'd wrapped Riko's hair around her pinky once again, hooked their fingers together. "It's a promise."

* * *

Chika still laid in bed for an hour after RIko left. She didn't know how Riko managed to get up and go about her day after something as exhaustingly sensual as... _that_ , the night before. The orange-haired girl could still feel, when she closed her eyes, the brushing of fingers, the sensation of skin on skin, the crescendo - the _crescendos_ \- that filled every part of her being with a light and warmth, and how, as if by some kind of magic, she _knew_ RIko was feeling the same. She could still hear their sighs, their moans, and their amorous friction -

She opened her eyes and wiped a hand against her clammy forehead. She could feel her use for a shower too.

Cleansed and clean she walked out of the bathroom wearing the same over-sized sweats and holey t-shirt Riko lent her the night before when she was dripping wet = from the rain, as the night had begun innocently enough.

Riko's student apartment was as small as she'd expected. There was the bed they shared leaning against one wall and across from that, Riko's piano. A compact wooden desk was beside the bed in front of the room's sole window. The floor was clear and clean, the walls bare but for a few pictures: one of Riko's parents, a picture of Aqours, and one of just she and Chika smiling bright, arms around one another while they sat on the pier where they'd first met. Close to the door was a tight bathroom with a shower, and across from that a tiny kitchenette - one burner, one small fridge, and a tiny excuse for a counter top. The place felt a bit lonely to Chika considering it was made specifically to house just one person. She wished she could share it with Riko, maybe make the place a bit more like home even if it might be too small for two people.

She walked back to the bed and lounged with her hands behind her head, only then noticing her nearly folded clothing on Riko's desk. The redhead must've woken up earlier than Chika thought if she had time to do laundry as well. Was it because she'd been nervous after what happened between them? Riko _was_ prone to worry. Regardless, doing her clothing was a small gesture but a warm one, caring and thoughtful.

Once more she thought of the night that passed. That had been a first for both of them, in quite a lot of ways. The loving look in Riko's eyes before they drifted off was the clearest memory she had of such an eventful time. It wasn't as though the wonderful, physical intimacy didn't open up new possibilities for the two of them, but those adoration-filled eyes reassured Chika that nothing changed between them, that if anything, their love had only grown stronger.

But how was she to put this into words? Riko's unasked questions filled her head. The other girl seemed to need assurance or guidance, but how was Chika supposed to give it to her when all of this was just as new to Chika as it was to the pianist?

She wracked her brain during the time Riko was in class. The right words just wouldn't come, so a heavy heart to heart was out of the questions. Could she do something romantic but cliche? Leave a loving note for Riko to find after Chika left for home, or cook a meal for the girl as she arrived home from class? All of this seemed to be...not enough, or perhaps, _too_ much to be the right method. Chika tossed Riko's pillow up in the air in frustration, and grumbled when it felt back down and slammed her in the face.

As if the force of the pillow carried the answer, a thought exploded in Chika's mind. The girl hopped off of the bed in an instant and set to work.

* * *

With a tired sigh Riko pushed her way into the apartment and slipped off her wet shoes and coat. She placed the dripping umbrella into the small wire stand in the corner beside the door, then walked through the narrow hallway into the room. Class had taken much too long today; she had already been tired, and for good reason.

It was evident immediately that Chika wasn't there. Th bed was made, the bathroom open and unoccupied, and her clothing was no longer on the desk. A quick glance back told her that Chika's shoes were gone too. She grimaced, upset. She didn't even want to entertain the thought that the girl would up and leave after the night before. Chika...Chika wouldn't do that, she was sure of it.

Right?

As Riko pulled out her phone to call the girl she was distracted and unaware of her surroundings. It was with a jolt that she felt a pair of warm arms wrap around her from behind.

"Welcome home, Riko!"

"C-chika,!" the redhead stiffened, but then relaxed into the embrace. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Sorry, sorry, my bad." she laughed and removed herself from Riko. She walked around to the front of the girl, then continued. "Anyway, I uh, I didn't really know how to - you know - talk about last night." She smiled, embarrassed. "Not that I'm a kid and I don't know the words I need, but - "

"But how to express it the right way?" Riko tried.

"Yeah." Chika reached into her pocket and grasped something in her hand that Riko couldn't yet see. "Like, I don't want anything to change - for the worse - after last night."

RIko nodded, feeling somewhat ashamed that she had nearly accused Chika of leaving without a word.

"So I picked something up. Maybe it'll say what I can't."

From her pocket Chika pulled out two thin, braided bracelets in a deep red reminiscent of Riko's hair. Each had a small golden clasp connecting the sides of the threading. Though they couldn't have been too expensive, what with Chika's budget being that of any jobless college student, the bracelets were elegant in their simplicity and seemed to have been made with care.

"I figured we were still connected with the red thread of fate." Chika continued. "And, you now, we can just look at these when we're apart and know that the other is doing the same, and that nothing's changed, and - "

Riko, overcome at that point with admiration and joy and tearful appreciation - with love - cut Chika off with a deep kiss and pulled their bodies as close as they could be. They fit as perfectly together as they had the night before.

"This is wonderful, Chika. Thank you. Thank you so much."

Chika separated from the redhead and took her hand gently, then slipped the bracelet on with the small golden clasp at the underside. She put her own on, then once more hooked her pinky around Riko's in an unspoken promise that they both understood.

* * *

It was still raining as Riko stood on the platform, watching the glowing ember eyes of Chika's train speed farther and farther on its way to whatever connections would take the girl back to Uchiura. Her heart ached terribly with every meter of distance the train put between them. Shielded from the storm as she was by the roof of the platform, Riko only heard the tinny, incessant beating of droplets on metal and glass, not unlike the night she shared with Chika - the background soundtrack to the biggest _first_ of her life she'd ever shared with any one at all.

Then again, she thought as she fingered the beautiful bracelet wrapped around her wrist, she didn't want to experience love like that with any one _but_ Chika; her first would be her last. Her first would be her only.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

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